Beethoven Monument, Bonn
Encyclopedia
The Beethoven Monument is a large bronze statue of Ludwig van Beethoven
that stands on the Münsterplatz in Bonn
, Beethoven's birthplace. It was unveiled on 12 August 1845, in honour of the 75th anniversary of the composer's birth.
since 1823. In 1828 he had first expressed the idea of a monument to Beethoven in his native town. In 1832 he wrote an article suggesting the idea, "or, even better, a living memorial, one dedicated to art, Bildung
, education, etc."
Up to that time it had not been German or Austrian practice to erect statues of great cultural figures. Friedrich Schiller
had to wait until 1839; the first one of Mozart
(in Salzburg
, Austria
) was not unveiled until 1842; and the first one of Beethoven in Vienna
, the city he spent most time in, was most associated with, and died in, was not created until 1880.
On 17 December 1835, the "Bonn Association for the Beethoven Monument", headed by the famous translator of Shakespeare, August Wilhelm Schlegel, issued a call for a permanent memorial to Beethoven, which was sent to all the principal musical publications in Germany, France, and England. King Ludwig I of Bavaria
was enthusiastic, but the response was otherwise not very promising: in Paris, Luigi Cherubini
promised a special fund-raising concert but later changed his mind; in London, Beethoven's friend Sir George Smart
and Ignaz Moscheles
gave a benefit concert at the Drury Lane Theatre
, including the Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony
, but it was poorly attended.
Franz Liszt
involved himself in the project in October 1839 when it became clear it was danger of foundering through lack of financial support. Till then, the French contributions had totalled less than 425 francs; Liszt's own personal donation exceeded 10,000 francs. He contributed his advocacy and also his personal energies in concerts and recitals, the proceeds of which went towards the construction fund. The sole condition of his involvement was that the sculptor of the statue of Beethoven should be the Italian, Lorenzo Bartolini
. In the event, the contract was awarded to a German, Ernst Julius Hähnel
(1811-1891). The casting was done by Jakob Daniel Burgschmiet of Nuremberg.
Liszt returned to the concert stage for this purpose; he had earlier retired to compose and spend time with his family. He also wrote a special work for occasion of the unveiling, Festival Cantata for the Inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn, S.67 (Festkantate zur Enthüllung des Beethoven-Denkmals in Bonn).
Other musicians had been involved earlier: Robert Schumann
offered to write a "Grande Sonate", have it published with gold trim and black binding, and use the proceeds of the sale for the building fund. His Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophäen, Palmen: grosse Sonate für das Pianoforte für Beethovens Denkmal, von Florestan und Eusebius (Small Contribution to Beethoven’s Monument: Ruins, Trophies, Palms: Grand Sonata for the Pianoforte for Beethoven’s Memorial, by Florestan and Eusebius) underwent some name changes. His publishers did not accept it in 1836, and so he revised it and had it published in 1839 as his Fantasie in C
, Op. 17, with a dedication to Liszt. Schumann quoted a theme from Beethoven's song cycle An die ferne Geliebte
(To the Distant Beloved) in his work, which was also an allusion to his own "distant beloved", Clara Wieck
, who was then separated from him in Paris, by order of her father Friedrich Wieck
. In 1841 Felix Mendelssohn
wrote his Variations sérieuses
in D minor for the project.
The unveiling was originally scheduled for 6 August 1843, but was postponed to 12 August 1845.
On 12 May 1845, Schlegel died. His place as head of the organising committee was taken by the instigator of the idea, Heinrich Breidenstein.
Fortunately, a little more attention had been paid to the musicians who were to perform the music. The orchestra was made up of players from provincial orchestras from the area. The double basses included the world famous Domenico Dragonetti
, who had known Beethoven and was then 82, but was still an able performer. He was dead within less than a year.
, who had known Beethoven, conducted the Missa Solemnis
and the 9th Symphony
that evening.
On the morning of the unveiling, Tuesday 12 August, the Mass in C major
was performed in the Cathedral. Then the official unveiling was held. It was attended by a large number of prominent figures: King Frederick William IV of Prussia
and his consort; Queen Victoria (as part of her first continental visit since acceding to the throne 8 years earlier) and Prince Albert; Archduke Friedrich of Austria; the composers Hector Berlioz
, Giacomo Meyerbeer
, Ignaz Moscheles
and Félicien David
; the conductors Charles Hallé
and Sir George Smart
; the baritones Josef Staudigl
and Johann Baptist Pischek (1814-1873); the sopranos Jenny Lind
and Pauline Viardot; and Lola Montez
. Robert Schumann
and Felix Mendelssohn
, who had both written major works for the piano to raise funds for the monument, were unable to be present. Richard Wagner
did not attend, but he was certainly aware of the event, as he wrote to Liszt a week before the opening, proposing the erection of a similar statue to Carl Maria von Weber
in Dresden. A parchment signed by all the visiting dignitaries was sealed in a lead casket inside the monument.
This was followed by an afternoon concert: Liszt played the Emperor Concerto
and conducted the Fifth Symphony
, and Spohr led the Coriolan Overture, an aria from the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, and the quartet and finale from Fidelio
. It was originally proposed that Berlioz's Requiem
would be played; Berlioz insisted that he and only he conduct the work if it were to be played at all, but this did not please the Bonn committee, so the plan was dropped. That evening there was a spectacular fireworks display.
The next day, Wednesday 13 August, there was a concert lasting four hours: it included Liszt's Festival Cantata for the Inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn (given twice, once without the royal guests, and again after their arrival), Beethoven's Egmont
overture, a piano concerto by Weber, Leonora’s aria from Fidelio, a Mendelssohn aria, and the cantata Adelaide
. This was followed by a banquet for 550 guests at the Hotel Der Stern. The banquet was disrupted by the behaviour of Lola Montez
, who danced on a table and embarrassed Liszt by insisting she was his guest at the celebrations and demanding a seat appropriate to her claimed status, thus upsetting a pre-organised seating arrangement. This scandalised the Bonn authorities, and it rebounded on Liszt himself, so much so that when Beethoven's centenary was celebrated in Bonn in 1870, he was not invited to attend.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
that stands on the Münsterplatz in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Beethoven's birthplace. It was unveiled on 12 August 1845, in honour of the 75th anniversary of the composer's birth.
Background
Carl Heinrich Breidenstein (1796-1876) was Germany's very first professor of musicology. He had held a post at Bonn UniversityUniversity of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
since 1823. In 1828 he had first expressed the idea of a monument to Beethoven in his native town. In 1832 he wrote an article suggesting the idea, "or, even better, a living memorial, one dedicated to art, Bildung
Bildung
The term refers to the German tradition of self-cultivation, , wherein philosophy and education are linked in manner that refers to a process of both personal and cultural maturation...
, education, etc."
Up to that time it had not been German or Austrian practice to erect statues of great cultural figures. Friedrich Schiller
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...
had to wait until 1839; the first one of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
(in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
) was not unveiled until 1842; and the first one of Beethoven in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the city he spent most time in, was most associated with, and died in, was not created until 1880.
On 17 December 1835, the "Bonn Association for the Beethoven Monument", headed by the famous translator of Shakespeare, August Wilhelm Schlegel, issued a call for a permanent memorial to Beethoven, which was sent to all the principal musical publications in Germany, France, and England. King Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I of Bavaria
Ludwig I was a German king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states.-Crown prince:...
was enthusiastic, but the response was otherwise not very promising: in Paris, Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
promised a special fund-raising concert but later changed his mind; in London, Beethoven's friend Sir George Smart
George Thomas Smart
Sir George Thomas Smart was an English musician.Smart was born in London, his father being a music-seller. He was a choir-boy at the Chapel Royal, and was educated in music, becoming an expert violinist, organist, teacher of singing and conductor...
and Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire.-Sources:Much of what we know about Moscheles's life...
gave a benefit concert at the Drury Lane Theatre
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...
, including the Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
, but it was poorly attended.
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
involved himself in the project in October 1839 when it became clear it was danger of foundering through lack of financial support. Till then, the French contributions had totalled less than 425 francs; Liszt's own personal donation exceeded 10,000 francs. He contributed his advocacy and also his personal energies in concerts and recitals, the proceeds of which went towards the construction fund. The sole condition of his involvement was that the sculptor of the statue of Beethoven should be the Italian, Lorenzo Bartolini
Lorenzo Bartolini
Lorenzo Bartolini was an Italian sculptor who infused his neoclassicism with a strain of sentimental piety and naturalistic detail which led him furthermore in the future, while he drew inspiration from the sculpture of the Florentine Renaissance rather than the overpowering influence of Antonio...
. In the event, the contract was awarded to a German, Ernst Julius Hähnel
Ernst Julius Hähnel
thumb|Ernst HähnelErnst Julius Hähnel was a German sculptor.-Biography:He studied architecture under Rietschel in Dresden, and under Schwanthaler in Munich, and sculpture at Rome and Florence. In 1835 he went to Munich, and in 1848 became professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts...
(1811-1891). The casting was done by Jakob Daniel Burgschmiet of Nuremberg.
Liszt returned to the concert stage for this purpose; he had earlier retired to compose and spend time with his family. He also wrote a special work for occasion of the unveiling, Festival Cantata for the Inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn, S.67 (Festkantate zur Enthüllung des Beethoven-Denkmals in Bonn).
Other musicians had been involved earlier: Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
offered to write a "Grande Sonate", have it published with gold trim and black binding, and use the proceeds of the sale for the building fund. His Obolen auf Beethovens Monument: Ruinen, Trophäen, Palmen: grosse Sonate für das Pianoforte für Beethovens Denkmal, von Florestan und Eusebius (Small Contribution to Beethoven’s Monument: Ruins, Trophies, Palms: Grand Sonata for the Pianoforte for Beethoven’s Memorial, by Florestan and Eusebius) underwent some name changes. His publishers did not accept it in 1836, and so he revised it and had it published in 1839 as his Fantasie in C
Fantasie in C (Schumann)
The Fantasie in C major, Op. 17, was written by Robert Schumann in 1836. It was revised prior to publication in 1839, when it was dedicated to Franz Liszt. It is generally described as one of Schumann's greatest works for solo piano, and is one of the central works of the early Romantic period. ...
, Op. 17, with a dedication to Liszt. Schumann quoted a theme from Beethoven's song cycle An die ferne Geliebte
An die ferne Geliebte
, opus 98, is a composition by Ludwig van Beethoven in April 1816. It is considered to be the first example of a song cycle by a major composer.-Beethoven's :...
(To the Distant Beloved) in his work, which was also an allusion to his own "distant beloved", Clara Wieck
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
, who was then separated from him in Paris, by order of her father Friedrich Wieck
Friedrich Wieck
Johann Gottlob Friedrich Wieck was a noted German piano teacher, voice teacher, owner of a piano store, and music reviewer. He is remembered as the teacher of his daughter, Clara, a child prodigy who was doing international concert tours by age eleven and who later married Robert Schumann...
. In 1841 Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
wrote his Variations sérieuses
Variations Sérieuses
The Variations sérieuses, Op. 54, is a set of variations, many of them requiring a virtuoso technique, on a theme in D minor by Felix Mendelssohn, lasting about twelve minutes in performance. It was completed on 4 June 1841....
in D minor for the project.
The unveiling was originally scheduled for 6 August 1843, but was postponed to 12 August 1845.
On 12 May 1845, Schlegel died. His place as head of the organising committee was taken by the instigator of the idea, Heinrich Breidenstein.
Hasty building of the Beethoven Hall
The official unveiling of the Beethoven Monument was to be the high point of a 3-day Beethoven Festival. A month before the festival was due to commence, there was not a suitable venue to hold the expected 3,000 attendees. At Liszt's urgings, and only after he offered to bear the full cost himself, the committee engaged an architect and builders to construct the Beethoven Hall. By the time they finally started, they had less than two weeks to do this, and had to work around the clock to finish it on time.Fortunately, a little more attention had been paid to the musicians who were to perform the music. The orchestra was made up of players from provincial orchestras from the area. The double basses included the world famous Domenico Dragonetti
Domenico Dragonetti
Domenico Carlo Maria Dragonetti was an Italian double bass virtuoso and composer. He stayed for thirty years in his hometown of Venice, Italy and worked at the Opera Buffa, at the Chapel of San Marco and at the Grand Opera in Vicenza...
, who had known Beethoven and was then 82, but was still an able performer. He was dead within less than a year.
Opening celebrations
The Beethoven Festival started on Sunday 10 August 1845. Louis SpohrLouis Spohr
Louis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...
, who had known Beethoven, conducted the Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis is Latin for solemn mass, and is a name which has been applied to a number of musical settings of the mass, especially particularly serious or large-scale ones.The following are notable examples:...
and the 9th Symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...
that evening.
On the morning of the unveiling, Tuesday 12 August, the Mass in C major
Mass in C major (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Mass in C major, Op. 86, to a commission from Prince Nikolaus Esterházy II in 1807. In fulfilling this commission, Beethoven was extending a tradition established by Joseph Haydn, who following his return from England in 1795 had composed one mass per year for the...
was performed in the Cathedral. Then the official unveiling was held. It was attended by a large number of prominent figures: King Frederick William IV of Prussia
Frederick William IV of Prussia
|align=right|Upon his accession, he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but he refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of...
and his consort; Queen Victoria (as part of her first continental visit since acceding to the throne 8 years earlier) and Prince Albert; Archduke Friedrich of Austria; the composers Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
, Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
, Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles
Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso, whose career after his early years was based initially in London, and later at Leipzig, where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire.-Sources:Much of what we know about Moscheles's life...
and Félicien David
Félicien-César David
Félicien-César David was a French composer.-Biography:Félicien David was born in Cadenet , France, and began to study music at five under his father, whose early death however left him an impoverished orphan...
; the conductors Charles Hallé
Charles Hallé
Sir Charles Hallé was an Anglo-German pianist and conductor, and founder of The Hallé orchestra in 1858.-Life:Hallé was born in Hagen, Westphalia, Germany who after settling in England changed his name from Karl Halle...
and Sir George Smart
George Thomas Smart
Sir George Thomas Smart was an English musician.Smart was born in London, his father being a music-seller. He was a choir-boy at the Chapel Royal, and was educated in music, becoming an expert violinist, organist, teacher of singing and conductor...
; the baritones Josef Staudigl
Josef Staudigl
Josef Staudigl was an Austrian bass singer.- Life :Staudigl attended the school in Wiener Neustadt and, from 1825, was a novice in the Benedictine monastery of Stift Melk. In 1827 he went to Vienna to study surgery there...
and Johann Baptist Pischek (1814-1873); the sopranos Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind
Johanna Maria Lind , better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish opera singer, often known as the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she is known for her performances in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and for an extraordinarily...
and Pauline Viardot; and Lola Montez
Lola Montez
Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld , better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld. She used her influence to institute liberal...
. Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
and Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, who had both written major works for the piano to raise funds for the monument, were unable to be present. Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
did not attend, but he was certainly aware of the event, as he wrote to Liszt a week before the opening, proposing the erection of a similar statue to Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
in Dresden. A parchment signed by all the visiting dignitaries was sealed in a lead casket inside the monument.
This was followed by an afternoon concert: Liszt played the Emperor Concerto
Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, by Ludwig van Beethoven, popularly known as the Emperor Concerto, was his last piano concerto. It was written between 1809 and 1811 in Vienna, and was dedicated to Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's patron and pupil...
and conducted the Fifth Symphony
Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)
The Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1804–08. This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies. It comprises four movements: an opening sonata, an andante, and a fast...
, and Spohr led the Coriolan Overture, an aria from the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, and the quartet and finale from Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
. It was originally proposed that Berlioz's Requiem
Requiem (Berlioz)
The Grande Messe des morts, Op. 5 by Hector Berlioz was composed in 1837. The Grande Messe des Morts is one of Berlioz's best-known works, with a tremendous orchestration of woodwind and brass instruments, including four antiphonal offstage brass ensembles placed at the corners of the concert stage...
would be played; Berlioz insisted that he and only he conduct the work if it were to be played at all, but this did not please the Bonn committee, so the plan was dropped. That evening there was a spectacular fireworks display.
The next day, Wednesday 13 August, there was a concert lasting four hours: it included Liszt's Festival Cantata for the Inauguration of the Beethoven Monument in Bonn (given twice, once without the royal guests, and again after their arrival), Beethoven's Egmont
Egmont (Beethoven)
Egmont, Op. 84, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is a set of incidental music pieces for the 1787 play of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It consists of an overture followed by a sequence of nine additional pieces for soprano, male narrator and full symphony orchestra...
overture, a piano concerto by Weber, Leonora’s aria from Fidelio, a Mendelssohn aria, and the cantata Adelaide
Adelaide (Beethoven)
"Adelaïde" is a song for solo voice and piano by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was written in 1795/1796, when the composer was about 25 years old, and published as his Opus 46....
. This was followed by a banquet for 550 guests at the Hotel Der Stern. The banquet was disrupted by the behaviour of Lola Montez
Lola Montez
Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, Countess of Landsfeld , better known by the stage name Lola Montez, was an Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a "Spanish dancer", courtesan and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, who made her Countess of Landsfeld. She used her influence to institute liberal...
, who danced on a table and embarrassed Liszt by insisting she was his guest at the celebrations and demanding a seat appropriate to her claimed status, thus upsetting a pre-organised seating arrangement. This scandalised the Bonn authorities, and it rebounded on Liszt himself, so much so that when Beethoven's centenary was celebrated in Bonn in 1870, he was not invited to attend.